Has anyone else been experiencing thumb pain when reaching for the outermost key in the thumb arc?
2 Likes
I did on the default layout, so I moved my more-frequently used keys inward. On the left hand it’s shift, tab, cmd, ctrl (I put bksp where the tab key was), and on the right hand it’s alt, ctrl, space, shift, both left-to-right. That arrangement has been way friendlier on my DeQuervain’s, which might be what you’re experiencing as well.
There are some pretty good stretches for DeQuervain’s that help as well. I’m having a hard time finding any videos that include the stretches I like best but there’s a LOT out there to try.
1 Like
I wouldn’t say I’m experiencing thumb pain, but it’s definitely a stretch and somewhat uncomfortable for me. I made shift the key one-from-the outside and put alt and cmd on the edges since I don’t use those very often.
I did on my right hand only for some reason. I have CTRL, space, enter from the right side in
and I think it’s the enter key that might be causing it, however, over the years I’ve developed a weird way of twisting when I sit and I need to correct that.
Not having pain, but I agree that having Shift as the outermost key doesn’t seem to be optimal. Interesting that others have come to the same conclusion. My ordering, left to right, is Shift, Bksp, Ctrl, Cmd – Alt, Ctrl, Space, Shift. This makes more sense to me in a few ways: Shift, which I think is the most commonly used modifier, is easier to reach; Ctrl is still easy; Ctrl and Cmd/Alt, both command modifiers, are together (so I can chord them using only my thumb, without taking my fingers off the home row — but I guess this is just an Emacs thing); and of the two modifiers, the more commonly used one, Ctrl, is easier to reach. (Mac users will want to swap Ctrl and Cmd/Alt; this can be done in the Keyboard Preferences.)
I humbly submit that this might be a better default arrangement than the one currently shipping.
1 Like
No pain at all, but I have started to notice something weird, in that I have to make an effort to stretch for left shift, whereas the right hand keys are easy.
Could be that I still need to unlearn bad habits I picked up on my old keyboard, though thinking about it I did have a wrist injury many years ago and wouldn’t be surprised if that had long-term effects…
I don’t feel any pain but I reordered some of the keys like that (from left to right) :
Alt / Bksp / Shift (Enter, dual key) / Ctrl - Ctrl / Shift (Enter, dual key) / Space / Alt
I also realized (thanks to the heatmap plugin) that I almost never use the right Fn, Alt and Ctrl keys.
1 Like